


Beat This World

by Duck_Life



Category: The Walking Dead (TV), Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, POV Second Person, Zombies, here have this self-indulgent fic where carl is fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: You’re supposed to be dying. It feels like coming to life, though.





	Beat This World

It’s your time, and you know that. You send your father and the woman who’s become your mother outside, because they shouldn’t see. This isn’t for them to see. This is yours. Your time. Your death.

You take one last look through the window at the fogged silhouettes of your family, and you bring your pistol to the space just above your ear. You shut your eyes. You reach for the trigger—

And something knocks your hand away. The shot rings out, a bullet embedding itself somewhere in the rafters above you. Delirious and feverish, you look up to see who stopped you. 

At first glance, he looks like one of  _ them _ , pale and dead-eyed, with reddened eyes sunken into his gray face. But he’s different, too. There’s light in his eyes, purpose in his movements. He’s simultaneously dead and thrumming with life. 

“You don’t have to die today,” the stranger says. “It can be okay. You can turn, and… and it’ll be okay. I can take you somewhere.”

“No,” you argue, weighted down. This is your end. You can’t let yourself change; can’t put your family through that. 

“Shh, shh,” the stranger says, kneeling down beside you. He helps you sit up, looks you in the eye. You can watch the emotions play across his face as he makes his decision, and then he slips a white bracelet off of his wrist and onto yours. 

The change is incredible. Energy courses through you, crawling up your veins and through your blood. It’s better than medicine, it’s better than food. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, you know that, vaguely. You’re supposed to be dying. It feels like coming to life, though. 

“Come on,” the stranger tells you, helping you stand. Now that you’re more aware, more awake, you realize his hair is brilliantly green. “There’s a place where the dead and the living can coexist. And it’s  _ awesome _ . North of Oceanside, close to the shore. I can take you there.” 

You nod, not trusting your own voice. Your fever feels like it’s completely faded away, but your bones still feel heavy and your mind feels scattered. The stranger leads you out the back of the building. “My family,” you say, looking back over your shoulder.

“We’ll come back for them,” he tells you. “Someday. When they’re ready.” You said it yourself, not long ago, that your father can be a man of peace again. But he isn’t there yet. And to tell him they can be allies with the dead… it might be too much. Too much, too fast. Someday, then. The stranger walks with you into the woods, following the edge of the road. “I’m Zed, by the way,” he says. 

“Carl.” Now that you’re starting to feel more like yourself, you catch more of the details in Zed’s appearance. Since he gave you that thing on his wrist, his eyes have grown darker. His veins have bulged out from his parchment-like skin. “You need this,” you realize, holding up the hand with the bracelet on it. 

“No, no, you need it more,” he says, but it sounds like it takes him a considerable effort to get the words out. “I’ll be fine, Carl.”

As it turns out, you aren’t walking the whole way. Zed leads you to a beat-up baby blue sedan. “There’s some apples in the glove compartment,” he says, opening the passenger’s side door for you. “Eat up.” 

Zed drives into the night. Even though his eyes are huge and dark, even though the veins in his arms and face look like spiderwebs, he keeps calm. He isn’t like the monsters you’ve been fighting since you were nine years old. He’s kind. He’s brave.

He’s taking you, a stranger, back somewhere where you’ll be safe, which is what got you here anyway. Zed drives and your mind spins and spins like a washing machine. 

Finally, you arrive in a quaint little neighborhood that looks almost untouched by the end of the world. Houses sit in quiet little lines. There are walls, yes; a big one down the center of town boasts a sign that reads: ZOMBIETOWN WELCOMES SEABROOK. 

“Welcome to your new life, buddy,” Zed says. 


End file.
